For Nietzsche philosophy was not a “critique of words by means of other words”. Instead, for Nietzsche philosophy had a definite practical purpose: that being, to facilitate the emergence of the great individual who dedicates their life to growth and self-overcoming.

Such a pursuit would provide one with the ability to completely affirm life in the face of suffering, pain, and tragedy. “There are heights of the soul from which even tragedy ceases to look tragic” and the great individual attains these heights.

Nietzsche viewed himself as the educator of such a great individual, whom he called the higher man. For this reason, he saw himself as writing not for the masses but for the potential higher man alone. 

The higher man is separated from the rest of mankind by the constitution of his internal being. Within the higher man exists an array of powerful and potent drives engaged in a continual battle with each other. The higher man, in other words, is a chaotic being who is at constant war with himself, and therefore one who suffers deeply and is always in danger of self-destructing. In order to attain greatness and the ability to affirm life, the higher man must impose order on his internal chaos. This is his life’s mission: “To become master of the chaos one is…that is the grand ambition here “

Because he suffers so deeply from the chaos that he is, there exists the possibility that the higher man will evade his life’s mission and instead seek out the comforts of mediocrity via conformity.

Nietzsche postulated that within every individual exists a ‘herd instinct’, that is, an innate need to obey and conform to the masses. Individuals satiate this need by obeying the accepted morality, that is, the designations of what is good and what is evil, of one’s culture.

Nietzsche maintained that herd morality serves a clear purpose: it instills in mediocre individuals the conviction that their weakness is not a fault, but instead a strength.

On the other hand, herd morality maintains that those qualities which the herd lack, are evil. “High and independent spirituality, the will to stand alone, even a powerful reason are experienced as dangers; everything that elevates an individual above the herd and intimidates the neighbor is henceforth called evil.” Therefore, with herd morality, as Nietzsche amusingly quipped, “the “sheep” gains in respect” .

Since sheep-like qualities are championed by herd morality as being ‘good’, herd morality pressures individuals into becoming good, that is, weak and obedient. The higher man, if he is to achieve greatness must escape the clutches of herd morality, and renounce it in favor of his own self created and life-affirming morality. 

In order to escape from the herd and live according to his own life-affirming morality, Nietzsche thought it was essential for the higher man to separate himself physically from the herd and live a life of solitude. The higher man, if he is to achieve greatness in life, must contemplate questions which the herd is too weak and scared to ponder. And to do this, he needs his solitude.

According to Nietzsche the deepest questions one can ask in life are: “why do I live?”, and “why do I suffer?’. In fact, Nietzsche believed that these two questions are really one and the same. Man needs to believe life has a meaning or purpose because of the fact that he suffers so deeply, and thus wants to be assured that he suffers for a reason:

With his proclamation “God is dead”, Nietzsche prophesied the coming of an age when the interpretations of life’s purpose which had been dominant up to that point, most prominently the belief in a god, would be unveiled for what they are: mere myths or stories. Without the conviction that life has a goal or a purpose, Nietzsche understood that many individuals would fall into despair under the suspicion that we are nothing but meaningless animals in a meaningless universe.

Nietzsche discerned that this dark suspicion would usher in a state of nihilism, which is the belief that “everything lacks meaning”. Without a goal or purpose to impose meaning on one’s suffering, one is left with the despair-ridden conviction that one suffers for no reason at all.

Nietzsche himself struggled with nihilism throughout his life, he didn’t believe life was devoid of meaning. Instead, he came to realize that nihilism is a consequence of the misguided attempt to acquire objective knowledge, or in other words, the desire for there to be an objective meaning to life that an individual can come to know.

Nietzsche believed that not only was there no objective meaning to life, but he claimed that truth does not exist and therefore objective knowledge about anything, including the ‘meaning of life’ is an impossibility. According to Nietzsche, an individual is always confined to know the world through one’s own personal interpretation of it.

Since one cannot escape from one’s own personal interpretation, or perspective, of life, Nietzsche understood that one should give up trying to search for the truth, as “there is no ‘truth‘”,  and instead interpret existence, in a way that is ‘life promoting’, and for in doing so, one will be able to escape nihilism by creating meaning in one’s life.

Since Nietzsche realized that the deepest question which confronts man is ‘why do I suffer?’, he understood the desperate need to first and foremost interpret suffering in a manner that would be life promoting. Through his analysis of his own suffering, Nietzsche came to understand that “pain is not considered an objection to life.” Instead, Nietzsche believed that a life without suffering and pain would be a miserable life, for he believed suffering to be a precondition of greatness.

With the knowledge that with great suffering comes great advancement, Nietzsche understood that the higher man would be in need of an idea, or a vision of perfection, to keep him motivated in his quest for greatness even in his darkest hours. Nietzsche invented the Ubermensch, or overman, as such an ideal.

The overman, as an ideal, is a perfect and powerful being, one who has overcome all his inner fears, weaknesses, and deficiencies, and thus one who soars above the rest of mankind. Since ideas can be approached but never realized on this earth, Nietzsche maintained that “never yet has there been an overman”.

The best one can hope for is to attain the perfection and power of the overman in rapturous moments, yet it is impossible to maintain this perfection, and after these ecstatic moments one must always revert back to being ‘human, all too human”

In his state as ‘human, all too human’, The higher man would become aware of his deficiencies and weaknesses, and would subsequently feel ashamed at the vast gulf which separates him from the perfection of the overman. Craving the unattainable perfection of the overman, the higher man would begin to hate his imperfect self. This self-hate, Nietzsche paradoxically held, would be the beginning of the higher man’s great love for himself. For the higher man would soon come to realize that without his inner deficiencies and his hatred of them, he would have no motivation to grow and overcome himself, and thus would remain forever stagnant.

Nietzsche thought that the complete affirmation of life was the highest state a human being could attain. He put forth two intertwined concepts to represent the affirmation of life: Amor fati, or love of fate, and the eternal recurrence.

Amor fati, or love of fate, is the culmination of the higher man’s greatness: “My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati”, wrote Nietzsche in Ecce Homo. To love fate means to completely affirm life, and is thus the most difficult task there is. The difficulty lies in the fact that existence contains so much evil, pain, suffering, and tragedy. How can one completely affirm life in the presence of so much ugliness?

As we have seen, Nietzsche believed that one must experience great amounts of suffering and pain if one is to achieve greatness, or as he put it: “It is out of the deepest depth that the highest must come to its height.” With this knowledge, he believed the higher man would understand that evil, pain, suffering, and tragedy are not ugly but actually have an inherent beauty to them, for latent within these aspects of existence is the potential for growth and self-overcoming.

In order to determine whether one is in a state of Yes-saying, meaning a state of complete life-affirmation, Nietzsche constructed the eternal recurrence as a psychological test.

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small and great in your life will have to return to you – all in the same succession and sequence…Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: “You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.””

The higher man, in affirming life, realizes that his tremendous moments were born from his darkest experiences, and therefore apprehends the inherent beauty in suffering, tragedy, and evil. With this understanding, he does not condemn life as a pessimist despite the profuse suffering he has endured but instead celebrates tragedy as a joyous Yes-sayer.

As he nears his death, the higher man wishes not for the peace of non-existence but instead wishes the eternal recurrence were true so that he could repeat the struggle of life over and over for eternity.

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche conveyed this by saying: “‘Was that life?’ I want to say to death. ‘Well then! Once more!’”.